Gender Stereotypes in Electronic Media: Television and Beyond

Turn on your television at any time of the day, and within minutes you will spot a pattern. A woman scrubbing the kitchen floor with a smile. A man returning home from work to a freshly cooked meal. A fairness cream commercial promising a woman a better career – or a better groom. Electronic media, particularly television, has an enormous influence on how we understand gender, and much of that influence still flows through deeply entrenched stereotypes.

This matters because television remains one of the most consumed forms of media in the country. It reaches urban apartments and rural households alike, shaping attitudes across generations. Understanding how electronic media constructs and reinforces gender roles is essential – not just as an academic exercise, but as a step toward building a more equitable society.

Why electronic media matters in shaping gender perceptions 🔗

Electronic media includes television, radio, cinema, and increasingly, digital platforms like YouTube and OTT services. Among these, television continues to hold a dominant position. It is a family-oriented medium – research published in Frontiers in Psychology notes that roughly 98% of households own a single television set, making co-viewing between parents and children extremely common. This means the messages conveyed through TV programmes and advertisements are absorbed collectively, becoming part of shared family beliefs.

The concept of cultivation theory, proposed by George Gerbner, explains this phenomenon well. It argues that long-term, repeated exposure to media content gradually shapes a viewer’s perception of social reality. If television consistently shows women confined to the kitchen and men making boardroom decisions, viewers begin to accept these portrayals as natural rather than constructed. Albert Bandura’s social learning theory adds another layer: people learn behaviours by observing and imitating what they see. When television normalises specific gender roles, audiences – especially younger viewers – absorb and replicate those roles in real life.

Women in television serials: the “ideal bahu” and beyond 🔗

Indian television serials, often referred to as daily soaps, have a massive viewership, particularly among women. Yet scholarly analysis consistently points out that these serials overwhelmingly portray women as submissive, emotional, and bound to the domestic sphere. Research from FLAME University highlights a recurring pattern: the ideal woman on television is typically an obedient daughter, a devoted wife, or a self-sacrificing daughter-in-law who prioritises her family above everything else.

The visual language of these serials reinforces the message. Female characters are often shown heavily adorned in ethnic wear and jewellery from the moment they wake up. They cook, serve food to the family, and attend to the needs of elderly in-laws before their own. Storylines revolve around family conflicts, scheming rivals, and marital crises – rarely around a woman’s professional aspirations or intellectual growth.

The patriarchal paradox of “strong” women characters 🔗

An interesting contradiction exists in many popular serials. Some shows do feature women in seemingly powerful positions – a matriarch who controls the family, or a protagonist who fights injustice. However, this power almost always operates within a patriarchal framework. The strong matriarch still upholds family honour and tradition. The fighting protagonist’s ultimate goal is often to save her marriage or reunite her family. Genuine autonomy – the freedom to make choices independent of familial and marital obligations – is rarely depicted.

The SMART Moves Journal IJELLH describes this as a paradox where serials appear to celebrate women while systematically reinforcing patriarchal norms. Laura Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze is relevant here: even when the camera focuses on a woman, the narrative is structured around male desire, approval, and authority.

Colourism and beauty standards on screen 🔗

Television serials have also been criticised for promoting colourism. Darker-skinned actresses are frequently cast as antagonists or comic relief, while lighter-skinned women play the virtuous protagonist. This visual coding sends a powerful message about which women are considered desirable, moral, and worthy of love. It normalises a hierarchy of appearance that has real consequences for women’s self-esteem and social opportunities.

Gender stereotypes in television advertising 🔗

If serials tell stories, advertisements sell identities – and those identities are heavily gendered. A joint study by UNICEF and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media analysed the top 1,000 most-viewed advertisements on television and YouTube in 2019. The findings are revealing: while female characters accounted for nearly half of all characters and even had more screen time than men, they were far more likely to be shown in domestic settings, selling household products, and responsible for childcare and shopping.

This pattern has deep historical roots. A PubMed-indexed content analysis found that even in the late 1980s, women on television were primarily cast as victims, caretakers, and objects of attraction, while men appeared as decision-makers and intellectuals. More recent research tells a similar story. A study analysing Indian television commercials from 2011 to 2020 found that women appeared in home settings in about 66.7% of advertisements, while men appeared exclusively in workplace settings. Women were predominantly associated with household and healthcare products, while men dominated categories like banking, technology, and transportation.

The voiceover gap 🔗

One particularly telling indicator of gender imbalance in advertising is the voiceover. Even when a woman is the primary character in an advertisement, the authoritative voiceover explaining the product is often male. Research shows that male voiceovers constituted over 70% of all voiceovers in television commercials. This subtle detail communicates that while a woman may use a product, a man is the expert who validates it.

Beauty product advertising and the fairness myth 🔗

Academic analysis of fairness product campaigns demonstrates how advertisements build a narrative in which a woman’s success – whether in her career, her romantic life, or her social standing – depends on her physical appearance, specifically the lightness of her skin. This discourse trivialises women’s actual abilities and reduces their worth to a body image standard. Although some brands have rebranded their products in recent years, the underlying message in much of the advertising ecosystem has been slow to change.

Men and masculinity: the other side of the stereotype 🔗

Gender stereotyping in electronic media is not exclusively a women’s issue. Men are also boxed into narrow portrayals. The typical man on television is assertive, career-driven, financially dominant, and emotionally restrained. He does not cook, clean, or express vulnerability. Advertisements for cars, technology, and financial services almost exclusively feature male protagonists, reinforcing the idea that these domains belong to men.

This portrayal of rigid masculinity is harmful in its own way. It discourages men from participating in domestic responsibilities, from expressing emotions openly, and from supporting their partners as equals. A truly gender-sensitive media would challenge these norms for both men and women.

The regulatory framework: laws and guidelines 🔗

There are legal and institutional mechanisms in place to address gender insensitivity in media, though their effectiveness remains debated.

The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 was enacted to prohibit the depiction of women in a manner that is indecent or denigrating. The Act has been amended over the years, including updates in 2012 and 2018, to keep pace with the changing media landscape. It defines indecent representation as any depiction of the female form that is derogatory, denigrating, or likely to corrupt public morality.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) serves as the industry’s self-regulatory body. In May 2022, ASCI updated its code to include broader protections against discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, body shape, age, and physical or mental conditions. Its guidelines specifically state that advertisements should not reinforce harmful gender ideals, should not sexually objectify any gender, and should not suggest that a person’s happiness depends on conforming to idealised physical features.

Beyond these bodies, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) and Doordarshan’s advertising code also set standards. However, enforcement has been inconsistent. Many advertisements that are technically in violation of these guidelines continue to air without consequence. The gap between policy and practice remains significant.

Signs of change: progressive portrayals in electronic media 🔗

It would be inaccurate to suggest that nothing has changed. In recent years, there has been a visible shift in how some television programmes and advertisements approach gender. Shows like Udaan, Balika Vadhu, and Anupama have featured women protagonists who challenge traditional roles – pursuing education, fighting child marriage, or rebuilding their identity after years of domestic subjugation.

In advertising too, some campaigns have broken the mould. UN Women’s Unstereotype Alliance, launched in India in partnership with ASCI, actively campaigns against gender stereotypes in advertising through initiatives like the #YouDontSeeMe campaign. Brands have begun featuring men in caregiving roles, women in professional settings, and narratives that reject the fairness-equals-success formula.

The Geena Davis Institute’s recommendations for the advertising industry include eliminating sexual objectification, portraying more women in leadership roles, showing men in domestic settings, and setting benchmarks for diverse representation including caste and class. These recommendations offer a concrete roadmap for the industry.

OTT platforms and digital media: a new frontier 🔗

The rise of OTT (over-the-top) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar has introduced a new dimension to the conversation. These platforms often operate with fewer content restrictions than traditional television and have produced shows with more complex, nuanced female characters. Women on OTT platforms are more frequently shown as professionals, as flawed and layered individuals, and as agents of their own stories rather than accessories in someone else’s narrative.

However, this space is not without problems. Some OTT content swings to the opposite extreme, using explicit content or violence against women as a tool for shock value rather than meaningful storytelling. The absence of a uniform regulatory framework for digital content means quality varies wildly, and harmful representations can still find a large audience.

Social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have also become spaces where gender stereotypes are both perpetuated and challenged. Independent content creators, feminist commentators, and media watchdog groups use these platforms to critique problematic portrayals and amplify progressive voices. This democratisation of media production is significant – it means that the conversation about gender in media is no longer controlled solely by large production houses and advertisers.

The way forward: what gender-sensitive media looks like 🔗

Achieving gender-sensitive electronic media requires action at multiple levels.

Content creators and scriptwriters need to move beyond the limited archetypes of the sacrificing wife, the scheming rival, and the dependent daughter. Women characters should be written with the same complexity and agency as male characters – with professional ambitions, personal flaws, and storylines that do not revolve exclusively around marriage and family.

Advertisers and brand managers must recognise that audiences are evolving. Research increasingly shows that consumers respond positively to inclusive, non-stereotypical advertising. Showing men cooking dinner or a woman buying a car is not just socially responsible – it is commercially viable.

Regulatory bodies need to strengthen enforcement mechanisms. Guidelines that exist only on paper serve little purpose. Regular audits of advertising content, stronger penalties for violations, and greater transparency in complaint resolution would make a meaningful difference.

Media literacy among viewers is perhaps the most powerful long-term solution. When audiences learn to critically analyse the content they consume – to ask why a woman in an advertisement is always shown in the kitchen, or why the male protagonist never changes a diaper – they become less susceptible to internalising stereotypes and more likely to demand better representation.

What do you think? 🔗

Consider the television shows and advertisements you watch regularly. Do you notice recurring patterns in how men and women are portrayed – and have those patterns changed over the years? More importantly, can electronic media truly drive social change on gender, or does it merely reflect the attitudes that already exist in society?

References

1. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1234678/full
2. https://www.flame.edu.in/in-the-media/chained-by-tradition-investigating-the-psychology-behind-stereotyping-women-in-indian-soap-operas
3. https://ijellh.com/index.php/OJS/article/view/11601
4. https://www.unicef.org/rosa/reports/gender-bias-inclusion-advertising-india
5. https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1599&context=etd
6. https://www.academia.edu/41806295/Portrayal_of_Women_in_Indian_Television_Advertisements
7. https://www.gdayindia.com.au/challenging-the-stereotypes
8. https://law.asia/asci-code-prohibts-prejudice/
9. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/press-release/2023/07/new-campaign-calls-out-gender-stereotypes-in-indian-advertising
10. https://geenadavisinstitute.org/research/gender-bias-and-inclusion-in-advertising-in-india/